13
20 YEARS
OF CONTROLLING
IN SLOVENIA
SLOVENIA
Ljubljana, March 1995: Controlling School Slovenia
organises its first Controlling and Controller work-
shop with 19 participants. They sit in a seminar room
waiting for the first controlling workshop to begin.
At that time, for many people controlling was just
a modern word. Each participant was dealing with
many questions: What exactly is controlling? What is
a controller’s job? Could those companies which im-
plement controlling be as successful as the compa-
nies from Western Europe? Can we do it? Should we
do it? The first workshop was led by Prof. Dr. Franc
Križaj and Mrs. Joža Železnikar (company ORGOS),
both pioneers in the field of controlling in Slovenia.
Among the participants were leaders from the fields
of banking, telecom and manufacturing, and people
from budgeting and accounting. Ninety percent of
the participants were women, which is typical for
the area of controlling in Central and Eastern Europe.
The idea of systematic training for controllers in Slovenia
was formed spontaneously by the company ORGOS, con-
sulting company in the field of internal economics. The
word controlling came much later. An integral part of the
consulting activities was also an education for project team
members about costs, revenues, expenses and other eco-
nomic categories. That this knowledge was not good was
distinctly shown when the users started to use the results
of the project. Especially controllers, despite a wide range
of available data and good IT systems, rarely animate and
meet managers’ needs with their reports. This could put into
question even the results of the project.
Slovenia –
ICV working group
FROM PRACTICE TO
PRACTICE SINCE 1995
Controlling School Slovenia was founded in 1995, theo-
retically and practically supported by Dr. Deyhle. Crucial
was the meeting between Dr. Franc Križaj from ORGOS and
Dr. Albrecht Deyhle from Controller Akademie, and busi-
ness connections started. Trainers from Controlling School
went to Controller Akademie to educate themselves, to get
the certificate and controller’s diploma. A few years later,
Controlling School became a member of the International
Group of Controlling (IGC) to get standards for fundamental
controlling issues and for quality assurance in the training
of controllers.
In 1997, the first Controlling Conference was held in Slove-
nia. This year the 15
th
Controlling conference is organised. In
March 2007, ICV working group Slovenia was established by
the people anxious for knowledge and practical experience,
with the support of Mr. Herwig Friedag. Since then, WG
Slovenia meets four times a year.
In recent years, interest for controlling and education has
been changing according to the current economic situation
in Slovenia. Nevertheless, today controlling is no longer a
modern word, it is a necessity.
Dragica Erčulj,
Leader ICV working group
Slovenia and ICV Regional
Delegate South Eastern
Europe
